Driving mechanism for washing machines



K. K. SCHVULZ.

DRIVING MECHANISM FOR WASHING MACHINES. APPLICATION FILED APR. 10, 1919.

1,402, 4, I Patent-ed Jan. 3,1922v 4 smears-sum l.

o o .O o G T I5 K K. SCHULZ.

DRIVING MECHANISM FOR WASHING'MACHINES. v APPLICATION fILED APR. 10. 1919.

1,402,664; Patented Jan. 3,1922.

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, I K. SCHULZ. DRII/ING MECHANISM FOR WASHING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED APR-10, I919- 1,402,664. P e e Jan. 3, 1922.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3- IIIIIIII -'K. K. SCHULZ. DRIVIN G MECHANISM FOR WASHING MACHINES. APPLICATlON FILED APR.10. 1919.

1,402,664; Patented Jan. 3,1922.

4 SHEETSSHEET 4- warren s'rarss rarest orries- KAR L K. SGHTILZ; OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

DRIVING- MECHANISM FOR WASHING MACHINES.

Specification of Letters Patent. 7 Patented Jan. 3, 1922.

Application filed April 10, 1919. Serial No. 289,074.

, rotate first in one direction and then in the other. The reversal of rotation is accomplished by the shifting of a clutch,.and one of the objects of the invention is to provide means for insuring that the clutch will complete its shifting movement and thus render it certain to function properly. Another object is to provide meansv for preventing the shiftable element of the clutch from stopping at dead center. The power to rotate the clothes cylinder back and forth is usually derived from a power device which rotates always in the same direction; and it is one of the purposes of my invention to provide means for absorbing any shock or jar which might otherwise attend the reversing of the cylinder. Another object is to provide certain advantageous details of construction which will be hereinafter described. 1 p

I accomplish my objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is an end elevation, showing the external appearance of the casing and an ing mechanism. Certain elements are shown in vertical section to betterimpart an understanding of the structure.

Figure 2is a plan section on the line 2'2, Figure 1. i p

Figure 8 is a view of the planetary gearingand other parts of the driving and reversing mechanism.

Figure 4 is a detail of the planetary gears and a portion of the reversing mechanism.

Figure 5 is a view of some of the parts shown in Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a vertical section on the line 66, Figure 1, and

Figure 7 is a plan view, partly in section, illustrating the manner in which the planetary pinion, controls the reversing mechanism,

. Like numerals denote like parts throughout the several views.

In the form selected to illustrate the invention the machine is mounted in a framework 1 which supports a motor 2 and a cas ing 3 for the clothes cylinder 4. Said cylinder rotates about a horizontal axis in the casing and has openings in the sides for the passage of water in and out in the well known manner. In the type illustrated, the motor has a shaft6 which drives a pinion 7 geared to a spur wheel 8. I Said spur wheel drives a pair of intermeshing bevel gears 9, 10, the gear 10 being journaled in the bracket 11 and adapted to rotate a housing 12. Said housing has keyed to it a number of friction disks 13 which engage interveningfriction disks 14c keyed to drive shaft 15, said disks are axially movable so that they may be pressed more tightly or more loosely into frictional'engagement, as may be required. A plug 16 screws into the upper end of housing 12 and the friction disks are backed up by helical compression spring 17, the result being that by tightening or loosening the plug a greater or smallerv amount of torque may be transmitted from the bevel gear 10 to shaft 15. If, however, by reason of the (not shown) or for anyfother reason the shaft 15 isheld againstrotation, the friction disks will slide upon each other and prevent the burning out of the motor.

Shaft 15 bears in a housing 20, which is normally. provided with a cover (not shown). Pinned or otherwise rigidly secured to this shaft is a block 21 which forms an anchor for one end 22. 'The other end of said spring isfastoned to a bevel gear wheel 23, which is axially bored to accommodate shaft 15. Gear 23 is loose upon theshaft, but is held against axial movementbymeans of the housing at one end of it, and the spring 22 at the other end. The result is that the spring constitutes a yieldable or resilient connection between the drive shaft and the bevel gear 23 and absorbs all shocks and jars'which might otherwise occur when the the casing 3 and'encloses twoclutch pinions' ofthe coiled spring 1 jamming of the wringer V the pinions 30, 31.

30, 31. These pinions are loose upon the shaft and are driven alternately by means of a sleeve 32 which is splined upon the shaft. When the sleeve is shifted in one direction it will engage one pinion, and rotate it, and when shifted in theother direction will engage the other pinion and rotate it. The sleeve has an annular groove 33 for receiving a controlling lever 50 which is pivoted at its lower end upon a stud 35 shown in side elevation in Figure 6. This stud is fastened to the gear housing and hence is stationary. It is evident that by swinging lever 50 about its pivot the sleeve 32 will be shifted and drive one or the other of In the intermediate or neutral position, shown in Figure 2 the shaft rotates without rotating either pinion.

Lever 56 is controllable both by hand and automatically. The purpose of the hand operation is to stop the machine. When'it is desired to stop the machine, the lever 50 is moved by hand to central position when it is capable of being held by a latch 52 which is longitudinally" slidable upon said lever, and

' when lowered will enter a notch 53 in the gear housing, see especially Figures 1 and 3.

When the machine is in normal operation the lever swings back and forth past the notch and in order to prevent the latch from being lowered at any point except in the notch the blocks 51, 51 on either side of it are longer than the distance which the controlling'lever travels away from the notch. For the purpose of keeping the latch out of the notch during the normal operation of the machine a ball catch is provided as shown in Figure 6. In this device a ball 55 is backed upby a spring 56 so as to tend to enter one or'the other of the shallow pockets 57, 57 formed in the face of the lever.

In this automatic operation arm 50 is operated by a keeper 37 riveted or otherwise rigidly fastened to an arm 34 fulcrumed upon the pin 35 previously mentioned. Said keeper, which is shown in detail in Figure -7, is considerably wider than the controlling lever 50 and hence there is an appreciable amount of lost motion between them, and the keeper will advance an appreciable distance before it commences to move the controlling lever. The result is that the mechanism prevents the lever from stopping at dead center as will presently be explained. Fastened to the keeper is a cross plate 38 which has rigidly fastened to ita wrist pin 40 forming part of the full-shift mechanism for insuring that the clutch sleeve 32 will always complete its shifting movement. Pivotally mounted on said wrist pin is a block 41, chambered at the top to receive the lower end of a helical compression spring 42. The upper end of the spring seats in a similarly chambered block 43 pivotally supported upon a stud 44 rigidly fastened to a lug 45 depending from 1 ,aoaeea the ear housing as shown in section in Fig. 6. uide pins 46 are fastened to one block and slide in the other and thus hold the blocks in alinement with each other and yet permit them to move toward and from each other. But the spring tends to force said blocks apart and as the stud 44 occupies a central position between ions 30, 31, said blocks, acting upon the pin 40 and arm 34 always tend to force the clutch sleeve 32 to complete its stroke and securely clutch the pinion to which it is nearest. Hence these parts may be said to form a full-shift mechanism for the reversing clutch.

The clothes cylinder 4 is rotated by means of a trunnion shaft 60 which is journaled in abearing block 61, preferably forming part of the gear housing 28 as best shown in Figures 2 and 6. Keyed to the trunnion shaft inside of the gear housing is a chambered bevel gear 62 which remains at all times in mesh with the pinions 30, 31. Hence the direction of rotation of the chambered gear (and consequently of the clothes cylinder) will depend upon which of the two pinions 30, 31 is engaged by the clutch sleeve32. The outer end of the trunnion shaft is preferably supported by a supplemental bearing 63 secured to the front of the gear housing 28 by bolts 64, 64 shown in Figures 1 and 6. The chambered gear 62 has an internal hub in the form of a pinion 66 which meshes with and causes the travel .of a planetary pinion 67. Said pinion also engages the internally toothed gear ring 68 which fits loosely within the chambered gear and is pinned or otherwise rigidly secured to the supplemental bearing 63, as best shown in Figure 2.

washer 70 is interposed between pinion 66 and the bearing 63, its diameter being sulfithe two clutch pincient to overlap the teeth of the planetary tates it will cause the planetary pinion to walk around the inner side of ring 68 but the planetary pinion will not complete its cycle until the pinion 66 has completed several revolutions. This walking or precessional movement of the planetary pinion is taken advantage of to reverse the direction of rotation of the clothes cylinder. It is provided with a projecting pin 72 adapted to engage a tappet 73 secured to the back of the keeper 37 as best shown in Figures 6' and 7. In the design shown this tappet is located'at the upper end of the arm 34 which is approximately on a level with the highest point reached by the planetary pinion in its progress around the internal gear ring. Consequently, as the pinion approaches its uppermost position it engages the tappet 73, as shown in dotted lines Figure 7, and moves it and arm 34 a certain distance, after which the movement of the clutch arm is completed by the full-shift mechanism including the spring 42 and cooperating parts. This shifting of the clutch arm (and the corresponding shifting of the sleeve 32) reverses the direction of rotation of the chambered. gear 62 and pinion 66, and hence the planetary pinion thereupon commences to rotate and walk in the opposite direction. This continues until the pin 72 engages tappet 73on the opposite side and produces a similar shifting of the clutch, but in the reverse direction. Thus after the clothes cylinder has revolved a number of times in one direction it is automatically reversed and makes an equal number of revolutions in the opposite direction; and thisaction is kept up until the operator holds the clutch sleeve 32 in neutral position by lowering the latch 52 into the notch 53. v

The operation will now be readily understood. VVhen the operator is ready, he starts the motor 2 which drives shaft 15 continuously in the same direction. By means of the spring 22 and the'bevel gears 23, 26 the rotation of the shaft 15 is transmitted to the countershaft 27, but by reason of the presence of said spring no shocks or jars of any kind can be transmitted to the motor. If

for any reason the shaft 15 should be held against rotation while the motor is running, the friction clutch mechan1s1n12, 13, 14 W11] slip and thus permit the motor to keep on' running and prevent it from burning out. As for the driving and reversing mechanism, so long as the countershaft 27 rotates and the controlling lever 50 is free to swing back and forth the clutch sleeve will be shifted intermittently thus causing the clothes cylinder to rotate first in one direction and then in the other. The full shift mechanism will see to it that the clutch sleeve shifts the full amount so as to completely engage one or the other of the clutch pinions 30, 31. It may some times happen that when the sleeve fingers 75 may strike the ends of the pins 76 on the pinions and prevent interengagement of the parts. will soon be overcome because the sleeve as it continues to rotate will soon rotate the end fingers past the pins, whereupon the full shift mechanism will complete the shifting movement of the sleeve and cause the interengaging parts to act. So long as the machine continues to operate, the controlling lever will swing first from one side as shown in full lines in Figure 3 to the other side, as shown in dotted lines, Figure 3. lVhen the operator wishes t stop the machine he moves the lever tion and then lowers the latch 52 which prevents the clutch sleeve from engaging either of the clutch pinions. On account of the lost motion between the keeper 37 and the keeper engages the 32 is shifted the end But if so, the difliculty b to central posicontrolling lever 50 it is obvious that the pin 72 will engage tappet 73 and move thewrist pin 40 an appreciable amount before the controlling lever. In other words, the wrist pin will always move in advance of the controlling lever. By

preference the parts are so designed that the controlling the sleeve 32 the keeper will not move lever far enough to release from the pinion with which it is engaged until pin 10 has passed dead center moving in a direction to withdraw said sleeve from said pinion. Hence, the sleeve will stay in engagement until wrist pin 10 has passed dead center and spring 42 will tend to disengage the sleeve and move it into engagement with the opposite pinion. Differently stated, the sleeve will not disengage its engaged pinion until the spring mechanism has already moved far enough to tend to shift the sleeve into engagement with the opposite pinion. The result is thatthere will be no danger failing to start up when the operator throws the controlling lever 50 u to either one of its xtreme positions.

It will be evident from the foregoing that the machine will be smooth in its operation because the shocks will be absorbed by the spring 22. It will operation because the full-stroke mechanism will insure the full shifting movement of the clutch sleeve 32. r 1

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Let ters Patent, is

1. A washing machine having a rotate ile washing element, a drive shaft, loose 'pini us on said shaft, each geared'to the washing element for driving it, a shiftable clutch for connecting said pinicns to the shaft alternately, a planetary pinion whose bodily movement shifts said clutch, and two gears simultaneously meshing with said planetary pinion for imparting a bodily movement to it first in one direction and then in the other, one of said gears being internally and the other externally toothed, and one of them eing stationary and the other rotating in unison with the washing element.

2. A washing machine having a rotatable washing element, a drive shaft, loose pinions on said shaft, each geared to the washing element for driving it, a shiftable clutch for connecting said pinions to the shaft alter nately, a planetary pinion whose bodily movement shifts said clutch, a stationary internal gear meshing with the planetary pinion, a center pinionrotating in unison with the washing element and meshing with the planetary pinion for causing it to travel bodily, and a gear wheel meshing with said loose pinions and connected to the washing element for rotating it. p v

3. A structure as'specified in claim, 2 in also be positive in its which the last mentioned gear wheel is a bevel gear and is chambered, and forms housing for the internal gear.

4. A washing machine having a rotatable Washing cylinder, a shaft rota I always in the same direction, a rever lble transmission gearing for transmitting power from said shaft to said cylinder, said gearing including a shiftable element adapted when in one acting position to cause the cylinder to rotate in one direction, and when in another acting position to cause the cylinder to rotate in the opposite direction, and full-shitt mechanism including two blocks slidably connected together so as to be movable toward and from each other, one block being adapted to oscillate about a fixed pivot and the other pivotally connected to toe shi'ltable element, and a spring interposed between said blocks and tending to force them apart to thereby urge the shift-able element to complete its shifting movement. a i

5. A washing machine having a rotatable washing cylinder, a shaft rotating always in the same direction, a gear wheel connected to the cylinder for rotating it, a pair oi pinions loosely mounted on said shaft and meshing with said gear wheel, a clutch sleeve splined upon the shaft and shittable into engagement withsaid pinions alternately for reversing the movement of the gear wheel and cylinder, and reversing mechanism for shifting said sleeve, said reversing mechanism including a center pinion rotating in unison with the cylinder, a planetary pinion engaging saidcenter pinion, an internally toothed stationary ring engaged by the planetary pinion, and tappet mechanism actuated by said planetary pinion, said tappet mechanism being connected to said sleeve for shifting it.

6. In a Washing machine, a rotatable washing element, driving mechanism therefor, and means for reversing the direction oi: rotation of the washing element, said reversing means including a recipr eating element, a keeper for reciprocating it, there being lost motion between the keeper and the reciprocating element whereby the keeper is always in advance of the reciprocating element, a tappet. for actuating the keeper, a planetary pinion having a portion adapted to engage the tappet for operating it, an internal and an external gear for causing said planetary pinion to planetate first in onedirection and then in the other, one of said gears being stationary and the other rotata ble in unison with the washing element, and the gear ratio being such that the washing element makes a plurality of revolutions in a given direction while the planetary gear planetates through an angle of approximately 360.

7. In a washing machine, a rotatable clothes cylinder, driving mechanism therefor, reversing means for reversing the direction of rotation of the cylinder, including a reciprocating lever, a keeper for reciprocating it, there being lost motion between the keeper and the lever whereby the keeper is always in advance of the lever, a tappet for actuating the keeper, a planetary pinion supported and actuated by the driving mechanism and adapted to actuate the tappet, and a spring device operative upon said keeper for urging it and the lever to complete their movement in a given direction. after the keeper has passed central position going in that direction.

Inwitness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name. I

Y KARL K. SCHULZ; 

